Brazilian footballer
Emerson Moises Costa
(born 12 April 1972), known simply as
Emerson
, is a Brazilian retired professional
footballer
who played as a
defensive midfielder
.
As well as in his country, he played professionally in Portugal, England, Spain and Scotland.
[1]
He also received
Portuguese citizenship
, after he married his Portuguese wife.
Club career
[
edit
]
Born in
Rio de Janeiro
, Emerson started playing with
Flamengo
, but he soon moved to
Coritiba
in search of first-team football. In 1991 he began his extensive overseas spell, first with
C.F. Os Belenenses
in Portugal.
After several impressive displays, Emerson secured a move to
FC Porto
. Under the management of former
England
coach
Bobby Robson
, he won successive
Primeira Liga
titles, appeared in the
UEFA Champions League
and won the 1996
Portuguese Player of the Year
award.
By now, Emerson's performances had attracted interest from major European clubs, and eventually he signed with
Premier League
side
Middlesbrough
, completing a
£
4 million move. It is alleged that the deal was done without manager
Bryan Robson
's knowledge, the manager only finding out after it was unwittingly mentioned by chief scout Ray Trainn
[
citation needed
]
; Emerson's cousin
Fabio
was also acquired, but played just one game in his 14-month spell.
However, things turned sour quickly with Emerson's former manager Bobby Robson, now at
FC Barcelona
, expressing his interest in bringing the player to the
Camp Nou
? this unsettled the midfielder, who by this time had already endured relegation to
Division One
in addition to difficulties in adjusting to life on
Teesside
. He travelled to Brazil for a break at the end of 1997, and once there threatened that he would not return to the club.
Eventually the dispute was resolved with a move to
CD Tenerife
in January 1998, for around £4.25 million. Surprisingly, Middlesbrough chief executive Keith Lamb later stated that he had tried to re-sign Emerson after Tenerife were relegated, and the latter remained in the
Canary Islands
until 2000 when he moved to
Deportivo de La Coruna
, after the
Galicians
'
2000 conquest
of the
La Liga
title. He often partnered compatriot
Mauro Silva
in
his first year
, but played sparingly in
the following
.
After further one-year stints with
Atletico Madrid
and
Rangers
,
[2]
where he became the first ever Brazilian to play for the Scottish, scoring once against
Panathinaikos
in the
2003?04 Champions League
,
[3]
Emerson moved to Greece, joining
Skoda Xanthi
in the summer of 2005. After having stayed there only six months, he was transferred to
AEK Athens
, in January 2006. On 21 November 2006, he played the whole match in the 1?0 victory against the eventual champions,
Milan
for the
UEFA Champions League
.
[4]
On 23 May 2007, Emerson was released by AEK and signed for
2006?07 Cypriot First Division
champions
APOEL
. However, in January of the following year, he returned to Brazil and ended his career playing for lowly
Madureira Esporte Clube
, at the
Rio de Janeiro State League
.
[5]
In pop culture
[
edit
]
Emerson is widely known in Hungary, due to an infamous interview with his former teammate
Peter Lipcsei
, who referred to Emerson as "black Emerson".
[6]
Honours
[
edit
]
Porto
Middlesbrough
References
[
edit
]
- Allen; Bevington; Harper (1997).
Boro's Best
. Juniper Publishing.
ISBN
0-9528622-1-2
.
External links
[
edit
]